Sonocatalytic performance of magnetically separable CuS/CoFe 2 O 4 nanohybrid for efficient degradation of organic dyes

• Published in: Ultrasonics sonochemistry 2018-06, Vol.44, p.359
• Main Authors: Siadatnasab, Firouzeh, Farhadi, Saeed, Khataee, Alireza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1873-2828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.02.051

The sonocatalytic activity of the magnetic CuS/CoFe O (CuS/CFO) nanohybrid was studied through the H O -assisted system for degradation of water soluble organic pollutants such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO). The CuS/CFO nanohybrid was fabricated at 200 °C by hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and Brunauere-Emmette-Teller (BET) were employed for the characterizing the structure and morphology of the so-synthesized nanohybrid. Compared with sonolysis/H O , the higher degradation of MB (25 mg/L) was achieved via sonocatalytic process. The degradation efficiency of sonolysis/H O , sonocatalysis using CuS/H O , CFO/H O and CuS/CFO/H O systems was 6%, 62%, 23% and 100% within reaction time of 30 min for MB, respectively. The integration of H O and catalyst dosage intensified the sonocatalytic degradation of MB. On the other hand, adding a hydroxyl radical (OH) scavenger (tert-butyl alcohol) and a hole scavenger (disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate) decreased the degradation efficiency from 100% to 35% and 72% within 30 min, indicating the OH radicals as prominent oxidizing agent of this process. Furthermore, the magnetic property of the sample helped for easier separation of the nanohybrid, made it recyclable with a negligible decline in the performance even after four consecutive runs.